sparkling

So far, v. unimpressed with new me. Too much tired, too much brain fog, too much bald. At least full body “I want to remove my outer layer of skin” rash has dissipated and the hole in my throat has healed and…

OKAY THIS IS HIGHLY DEPRESSING. Maybe I’ll write a post one day about cancer and chemo and how 2017/18 were NOT my best friends, but for now, how to distract…how to be festive…

I KNOW.

A NEW YEAR’S DAY OPEN HOUSE.

No, you may not know where I live, thx.

I’ve always wanted to host a fresh and glittery and welcoming party on New Year’s Day. Seeing as how NYE is so often a fail, or at least a regret, I thought it might be nice to focus on moving forward with the new year, rather than auld lang syneing the last.

I admit I reserved the good stuff and put out the good enough stuff, but when you invite 40 people and 37 of them can’t care if it’s Cupcake or if it’s Veuve, sorrynotsorry.

I rented extra coupes and flutes from River City Events, along with ice buckets. You don’t want to be washing up glassware in the middle of the festivity!

Here’s how I set it up. Also. Here’s my pink hair.

I set out three kinds of juice – pomegranate, grapefruit, and orange, and three kinds of fruit – raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. I also had non-alcoholic sparkling juice stuff. Whatever that is.

Silvery straws in a “sparkle” glass did double duty as sippers and stirrers.

With so much sparkling going on, one can’t forget the food! Since it’s a drop-in open house, I had to make sure that there were foods that could be replenished, both cold and hot.

However, apparently I only took one food photo. Must’ve been due to all the replenishing that was going on.

I was also delinquent in my dessert photo taking, ugh! But here are the big players.

Love, LOVE the Macaron Gâteau from Duchess. And that almond buttercream this month is amazzzzzing.

Need a festive party activity that is both fun and delicious? Get yourself a Galette Des Rois. Stuff the youngest partier under a table. Force him/her to call out everyone’s names, one by one. Serve each person a piece of cake. Hope to heck that no one breaks a tooth on the fève. (That’s the ceramic tile that’s hidden somewhere in the cake.) Stick the paper crown on the hopefully not toothless winner. Festive!

Queen S

hangover 2.0

A great way to kill a party’s vibe is to use LED lights and invite horrid guests. I avoided both of these.

Non-LED lighting.

Non-horrid guest.

Before people were allowed to escape, reluctantly took their leave, I demanded meekly suggested that they write down a wish and pin it to our wishing wall. I think wishes are so much more lovely and so much less intimidating than resolutions. “LOSE 10 LBS” is not what one wants to see when one gazes with wonder upon a wall of wishes.

Doesn’t get much wishier than this. HEART.

It was a lovely New Year’s Day party and my rash barely bothered me at all! Well, maybe a little bit around the ankle…and the elbow…and…and…